~$800B/year in annual volume run rate, as of this comment. You can move up to $10M per value message for less than 5 cents, with a max 20 second time to completion SLA.

https://www.frbservices.org/resources/financial-services/fed...

(i am contributing subject matter expertise to policymakers to make offering FedNow rails to financial services customers a requirement of having a banking license, so I'm a bit biased; this is the only way we'll get off of closed payment rails like Zelle, slow open rails like ACH, or expensive faster legacy credit card rails)

> Are bill payments and bank to bank transfers now happening instantaneously?

Walmart is currently rolling it out. I expect others to start to as you see them surcharge credit card payments (US mobile phone providers, internet providers, etc). It's trivial to build into an app experience, with or without a partner like Plaid (for example).

> “It surprised me,” Henry said of adoption of Walmart’s first iteration of pay-by-bank, which is available online but hasn’t been marketed to customers. “It’s certainly surpassed our expectations of the amount of customers that have registered and actually use the payment type.”

> Walmart’s upgraded pay-by-bank offering will be rolled out in 2025. The transactions will occur over bank technology provider Fiserv’s NOW Network, which integrates with The Clearing House’s Real Time Payments network and the Federal Reserve’s FedNow. Until now, large retailers hesitated to launch real time payment options because many banks were not connected to an instant settlement system, meaning their customers would not be able to use the product. NOW Network aims to connect to as many banks as possible to reach 100% of deposit accounts by combining its own network with RTP and FedNow.

Walmart Plans Instant Bank Payments, Cutting Out Card Networks - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41593450 - September 2024 (3 comments)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49632105 (additional citations)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49433164 (additional citations)

▲

smnrchrds 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Has this lead to any user-visible changes? Like, can you pay your bills on the due date now instead of a couple of business days earlier, not having to worry about it arriving on time?

▲

toomuchtodo 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The most visible change I've seen is that I can move funds instantly between my credit union (which I maintain solely for Zelle access at this time in my financial system) and Wise, for free, others would have to chime in for more pireps/ground truth on this which apps are getting this value in front of users.

https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow-servic... maintains a list of banks and financial service providers currently on FedNow rails.

▲

reaperducer 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Like, can you pay your bills on the due date now instead of a couple of business days earlier

For at least ten years now.

You should visit America. It's nice.

▲

smnrchrds 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I have. It is indeed nice. I haven't interacted with American bill payment infrastructure though during my visits. I read Bank of America website though, and it recommends sending bill payments 5 business days before the due date. Are they incorrect?

> How long does it take for an online payment to reach a biller?

> We recommend scheduling your payments to be made at least 5 business days prior to the actual payment due date on the bill. Scheduling your payments sufficiently in advance of the due date allows enough time for the biller to receive the payment and credit it to your account.

https://info.bankofamerica.com/en/digital-banking/online-bil...

▲

xp84 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Checking account "Bill Pay" features are a fusion of multiple ideas that you access through a single interface.

Adding a biller to it involves typing in the biller name, providing the account number (e.g. your credit card number) and the ZIP where your bills say to mail a check.

Big billers (like say, Chase credit cards) register with the other big banks and the handful of companies who provide white-labeled platforms for all the small banks and credit unions so that when you input one of their accounts this way, it'll match it up and turn into an electronic transfer which tends to show up pretty quickly (though I assume it does still take a couple of days to fully clear, you'll usually "get credit for it" the day of the payment).

But you can also just add literally any person or company name and address. Say, Bob Smith, 123 Example Street, City, ST 12345 and they'll just mail Bob a check on your behalf. So, those will always require days of time because they have to print and mail a physical check in those cases.

So, the generic advice has to assume it's not matched to an electronic biller profile.

In the case of most banks I've used, they hide this implementation detail slightly -- they just always have you pick the date the payment 'will be received' - and when it's not an electronic biller, you just can't pick a date that's too close.

▲

happyopossum 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That is likely there to allow for billers that don't accept electronic transfers. In those cases, BofA will write and mail a paper check.

▲

rootusrootus 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That's pretty general advice, and probably the safe choice, but anecdotally all of my bill pay ACH transactions these days are executed on the due date. The only exception is if the due date is a weekend, in which case it executes on the preceding business day. It takes usually one day, maximum two before it actually shows up as a withdrawal in the source account, but my payees all recognize the credit on the day of execution.

▲

reaperducer 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's the worst-case-scenario guidance. Bank of America will print and mail a check if it can't find an electronic method. I have a client who sends me his monthly payment this way.

If you're sending to a known entity like the electric company or a credit card, it's immediate.

As you, yourself noted, "I haven't interacted with American bill payment infrastructure."

Perhaps reserve your comments for things you know about.

	▲	smnrchrds 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I didn't comment; I asked a question. You are upset that I asked whether bill payments are instant?

▲

dghlsakjg 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Behind the scenes the money doesn't actually move day of. The people that accept payments are doing you a favor and crediting you before the funds settle.

If you pay a bill on the 1st, the money does not land in the payees account that day (barring in person cash transactions). Best case scenario, funds are available on the 2nd to the payee, although, more commonly, it is several days before the funds are settled. Banks will frequently paper over this showing the funds where they will eventually go, but the clearing house still hasn't finished. If you try to spend too much of that unsettled money, the bank will be glad to inform you that the money isn't actually available yet.

When people talk about instant payments they mean a few seconds, not overnight -maybe.

I used to be in charge of a payments dev team that oversaw several billion dollars of bill payments per year. There is nothing instant about moving money in the US.

▲

creaturemachine 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Two more years until you're off the blacklist.

▲

dcrazy 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Is ~800B a lot? It doesn’t sound like a lot in the context of the U.S. economy.

	▲	dghlsakjg 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Considering that Zelle is largely marketed for p2p and not as a general all-purpose payment mechanism, you need to compare it to Venmo or Square. For reference Venmo is on track for ~$400 billion this year.
	▲	toomuchtodo 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Draw your attention to YoY upward volume trajectory in my first citation in the comment you replied to. It is still "warming up." TAM is all existing check, ACH, Zelle, and credit card volume. Takes time for folks to get the warm fuzzies and migrate to new systems. The faster merchants offer instant payments for making payments for free and surcharge credit card rails for payments (to cover the exorbitant cost), the faster volume moves over (imho). Brazil's Pix (https://whatispix.com/) is what desired target end state looks like imho. Brazil's Pix payment system faces pressure from Visa and Mastercard - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48052371 - May 2026 (383 comments)